Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberghttp://www.bryaneisenberg.com
Professional Speakers, Best Selling Authors, Online Marketing PioneersFri, 09 Dec 2016 13:02:02 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1When Retailers Wreck Relationships Because Of Pricing Errorshttp://www.bryaneisenberg.com/retailers-wreck-relationships-pricing-errors/
http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/retailers-wreck-relationships-pricing-errors/#respondFri, 09 Dec 2016 13:02:02 +0000http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/?p=3057CyberMonday is becoming one of the most critical days for retailers today. According to IBM, Cyber Monday retailers saw online sales increase by 16.7 percent over last year. Retailers are using email and social offers to get the attention of their customers. In fact, according to IBM’s research: On Cyber Monday alone, IBM clients sent […]

]]>CyberMonday is becoming one of the most critical days for retailers today. According to IBM, Cyber Monday retailers saw online sales increase by 16.7 percent over last year. Retailers are using email and social offers to get the attention of their customers. In fact, according to IBM’s research:

On Cyber Monday alone, IBM clients sent nearly 500M email notifications to consumers around the world – a one-day record high. Mobile push outreach continued its rapid growth and was up 47 percent over 2015.

It was no grand surprise when I received an email from BaseballExpress.com with their CyberMonday deals. What was a surprise was that they offered a Wilson baseball glove deal for $19.88. They claimed it as a $140 savings. Meanwhile, when someone clicked through to the website the price was over $200. What looked like a great attention grabbing deal turned out to be a click bait and switch. Looks like someone made a mistake and didn’t check the image when they sent out their email. You can see the image below.

These kind of printing mistakes happen. I think we all understand that. A similar thing happened to Macy’s when they priced a $1500 necklace for $47. But, a brand is built on relationships and how you handle mistakes is vital.

I emailed BaseballExpress at around 7:30am. I told them about the pricing discrepancy and asked them how they were going to handle it. It wasn’t until after 4:30pm that I received a reply from them:

How would you feel at this point? Would you feel that they used false advertising to get you to click through to the website? Is there something they could have done at this point to at least make you feel better about their brand, especially after they admitted they made a mistake?

At this point, I re-checked their email and they had swapped out the original image with the corrected price. There was no second email apologizing for their mistake.

]]>http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/retailers-wreck-relationships-pricing-errors/feed/0Conversion 101: Creating an SEM Legend for Improved PPC Campaignshttp://www.bryaneisenberg.com/conversion-101-creating-sem-legend-improved-ppc-campaigns/
http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/conversion-101-creating-sem-legend-improved-ppc-campaigns/#respondTue, 02 Aug 2016 11:50:15 +0000http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/?p=3038In part one of this post, we took a look at the challenges a home remodeler or contractor might have at getting prospects to contact them and fill out a form from their landing pages. Before I go through the process and list all the questions our Persona might have, I want to ask you […]

]]>In part one of this post, we took a look at the challenges a home remodeler or contractor might have at getting prospects to contact them and fill out a form from their landing pages. Before I go through the process and list all the questions our Persona might have, I want to ask you who do you think is the most successful SEM advertiser of all time? If you answer Amazon, then I would have to agree with you. In fact, Amazon was so successful in their SEM campaigns that Google had to create PLAs just to claw back some market share. Many people switched from searching on Google for products and now start their searches on Amazon instead. How did they do it?

Amazon started by building pages that were designed to help people buy their product not just to sell products. Let’s start with reviews. a huge majority of people today will head to Amazon to read through the helpful reviews before they complete any purpose online or offline. As you scroll through the rest of the Amazon’s product pages, you will find numerous features to persuade you that the product you’re looking at is the right one for you. Once they have the landing page, then they can create an ad to drive you to the page and then look at the keywords and queries that are relevant for that ad.

So how would we create a buyers legend for an SEM campaign, especially for a complex sale. As we wrote in part 1:

To build a buyer legend for search you must perform a pre-mortem. We begin by having your team imagine that the customer has completed her (or his) buying journey and either didn’t buy at all, didn’t buy what you sell (in favor of an alternative solution), or bought from a competitor.

Now ask yourselves:

What went wrong that led to these outcomes? Think of Murphy’s law. Now think up fixes, resolutions, and workarounds for each failure point.

We can assume from what we know of Don that if people hire him, they will love him and tell others and that will drive people to go back online and search for him after the recommendation and continue this positive circle of business. The part that is not clear is:

What questions do you think Samantha might have before she even calls or completes an online form for a contractor to come to her house? Might she not call if she does not get some critical ones answered? It’s possible.

Now we start to outline our experience from the end moving forward, step by step, to the first step.

Here is a list of the questions our persona, Samantha, might have before contacting any particular contractor.

What parts of the area do you work in (for example do you work in the south part of the city or north part).

Before and After Images – What is quality of work and design? It’s easy to show pretty after results what people want to get a sense of what you started with.

Show me multiple color schemes, styles. Not everyone wants black and white kitchens they may want some extreme colors for example.

Explanation of process – each part of the jobs possibility…. IE- counters, backsplash, etc.

Are you trustworthy? Insured, bonded? What about reviews and recommendations?

How to get started – should I do something first?

When I call for appointment what will happen later? Will you show up and have samples and ideas discussed in the house?

Vendors to start with…. If I should start shopping, who do you recommend?

When you fill out an inquiry, what should I expect. How long will it be till you respond? who will be responding?

Go ahead and do a search for four kitchen remodelers in your town. Click through on some of the ads and organic listings. Did you find any vendor who answered at least 80% of these questions effectively? There are lots of opportunities out there, even in your category.

So what question do your personas need answered before they buy from you? Contact us if you need help answering this question.

]]>http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/conversion-101-creating-sem-legend-improved-ppc-campaigns/feed/0Should I call?Conversion 101: How to Create an SEM Legend Exercisehttp://www.bryaneisenberg.com/conversion-101-create-sem-legend-exercise/
http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/conversion-101-create-sem-legend-exercise/#commentsMon, 25 Jul 2016 16:48:12 +0000http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/?p=3033Don’s Contracting is in steady demand. The local market is tight, supply is low and demand is high. Don will tell you he makes his living off of word of mouth. He doesn’t worry much about online experience. He has a personal edge over many other contractors, because of how he makes his customers feel […]

]]>Don’s Contracting is in steady demand. The local market is tight, supply is low and demand is high. Don will tell you he makes his living off of word of mouth. He doesn’t worry much about online experience. He has a personal edge over many other contractors, because of how he makes his customers feel and the quality of his work.

Don doesn’t think about the experience of the people referred to him. He knows this level of demand may not continue forever so he has to to make hay while the sun shines. Today his potential customers happily take the personal recommendation. Yet, they will likely start their journey to hiring him online. Let’s think about the buyer legend from Samantha’s point of view.

Don is a talented remodeler and contractor. He has been working with the Keller family (all names have been changed to protect the innocent) for the past year on remodeling several parts of their home. They love Don and recommend him to friends all the time.

Samantha was referred to Don by the Keller family. Samantha has never done any significant remodeling in her home. She is looking to remodel her kitchen. She has tried speaking with a couple of contractors already. Those experiences left her with even more questions, and less confidence, than when she first started out. She is so grateful that the Keller’s told her about Don.

The first thing she does is Google his name and/or his business name.

What would happen if she could not find anything under his name? What do you think might happen if she found all kinds of negative reviews for Don? She might start a broader search for “kitchen remodelers in Austin” to see who and what show up?

To build a buyer legend for search you must perform a pre-mortem. We begin by having your team imagine that the customer has completed her (or his) buying journey and either didn’t buy at all, didn’t buy what you sell (in favor of an alternative solution), or bought from a competitor.

Now ask yourselves:

What went wrong that led to these outcomes? Think of Murphy’s law. Now think up fixes, resolutions, and workarounds for each failure point.

We can assume from what we know of Don that if people hire him, they will love him and tell others and that will drive people to go back online and search for him after the recommendation and continue this positive circle of business. The part that is not clear is:

What questions do you think Samantha might have before she even calls or completes an online form for a contractor to come to her house? Might she not call if she does not get some critical ones answered? It’s possible.

For this post let’s focus on just one part. In the comments below, list all the possible questions Samantha might want answered from the website if she landed on it before she contacts Don.

In our follow up post we will tell you exactly what we put together for Don based on our research. We will also share some of the screen shots of competitors so we can evaluate how well they did at helping the customers through the experience and building confidence.

]]>http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/conversion-101-create-sem-legend-exercise/feed/4need a remodelkitchen remodeler austinWhy CEOs Don’t Care About Conversion Rate Optimization #CROhttp://www.bryaneisenberg.com/ceos-dont-care-conversion-rate-optimization-cro/
http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/ceos-dont-care-conversion-rate-optimization-cro/#commentsThu, 02 Jun 2016 15:56:56 +0000http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/?p=3022I recently presented (slides below) at Conversion World. Sam Hurley; Digital Marketing influencer and Founder of OPTIM-EYEZ, asked me the following eight questions. The interview is still getting regular retweets so I’m providing a link to the interview and the slideshare. Jeffrey, why do you think CRO has become relegated to junior managers as a side […]

I recently presented (slides below) at Conversion World. Sam Hurley; Digital Marketing influencer and Founder of OPTIM-EYEZ, asked me the following eight questions. The interview is still getting regular retweets so I’m providing a link to the interview and the slideshare.

Jeffrey, why do you think CRO has become relegated to junior managers as a side project? Has it always been this way?

How can those with knowledge of CRO get board members to invest in the practice?

Can you give us 3 tactics you’ve found to be effective which actually go against the grain of ‘standard’ CRO?

Is there a benchmark conversion rate, or is it all a myth?

Which component of CRO do you believe to be the most important and why?

What are your favorite tools of the trade?

If there was one thing you could change in the industry, what would it be?

“We [CRO practitioners] are the dirt under the fingernails of the digital industry,” said CEO André Morys of Web Arts in the foreword of a recent ebook by Conversion agency PRWD featuring seventeen well known CRO professionals. He is correct! It’s clear that CRO isn’t perceived as a strategic advantage. It’s seen as a tactic relegated to junior managers and a first-to-cut line item when tightening corporate marketing budgets. If you are attending the Conversion World conference this should disturb you!

Jeffrey Eisenberg and his brother Bryan, are pioneers of conversion rate optimization. Together they co-authored the first two New York Times best-selling books about CRO. In their two decades of experience there have been many professional successes, failures, celebrations and disappointments.

In this tell-all keynote, Jeffrey will reveal the intimate secrets that even insiders rarely get to hear about conversion rate optimization.

During this presentation you will learn:

why conversion rate, an output metric, can’t be optimized like an input

The first rolling shopping cart was created by a Piggly Wiggly owner in Oklahoma City. Once a regular basket got too heavy, customers headed straight for the check-out line. This robbed stores of incremental sales.

So in 1936, that store owner introduced a rolling cart to make shopping easier. In CRO terms, he reduced the friction of shopping to increase average order size. The design went mainstream in the 50s. It has remained a retail “best practice” up to today, even making the jump to ecommerce.

But is it still the best way to reduce shopping friction? Is it really the best way to make shopping easier and more enjoyable?

Or are we mindlessly applying “best practices” instead of doing the hard work of designing customer-centric shopping experiences?

Another Industry Rethinks the Customer Experience

Until about a decade ago, the design of an average movie theater was essentially the same as it was at the birth of cinema. The design, that itself was borrowed from live theatre.

Except in live theater, the majority of the money is made from the sale of tickets. And they usually have an intermission to increase the sales of refreshments. In cinema, the dynamic is the exact opposite. Up to 40% of the theatre’s profits come from concessions and there is no intermission in the middle of a movie. And with no intermission, who wants to get up in the middle of the movie and buy more popcorn? That creates a lot of “friction” when it comes to patrons buying more concessions!

But, of course, nobody thought to rethink the basic design of theater until they were faced by increasing competition from the first wave of disruption from the digital revolution. Netflix, RedBox and Video on Demand had already put most video rental stores out of business. It looked like movie theaters would follow the same path of self-destruction.

Then movie houses like the Alamo Drafthouse, looked to re-think the movie watching experience from the perspective of the customer.

Second, why not let patrons order more food and drink from their seats?

Third, why not design the theatre with cabaret-style tables stretching in front of each row of seats and auxiliary aisles between rows facilitating waitstaff service?

And while we’re at it, why not let patrons reserve their seats (and pay more for premium seating), instead of doing open seating?

Finally, why show only first run movies? Why not bring back fan and cult-favorites, so people can relive their favorite movies by seeing them on the big screen?

To quote the founder of Alamo Drafthouse, Tim League:

“You need to think about the customer experience all the way through, from buying a ticket to arriving in the parking lot to watching the movie to leaving… So much of what we do is trying to make the Alamo experience special.”

As a result of this customer-centric redesign, Alamo Draft House makes roughly double the amount of money per movie screen as any competitor — $917K per screen for Alamo Drafthouse, compared to $517K, $403K, and $442 for AMC, Regal, and Cinemark theaters, respectively.

How Retailers Can Implement a Similar Strategy

Retailers need to understand the benefits of the in-store experience to a consumer, just as the Alamo Drafthouse started by recognizing the benefits of the in-theater experience to the movie goer.

So what is the core value of an in-store shopping trip? In three words it’s Discovery, Trial, and Instant Gratification.

And once we start with the idea of how to improve and amplify those attributes, the obvious question becomes: how does the traditional shopping cart and cash register fit into that equation?

They don’t. If anything, they are often the least favorable part of the experience and they were a logistical answer to a technological limitation that most stores no longer suffer from. If you have all your inventory on shelves and the customers have to go to the inventory (instead of vice versa) and if those same customers then have to bring their stuff to a set location for you to process their payments, then you need carts and checkout counters.

But what about shopping itself demands that kind of set-up? Isn’t it possible to design a better retail experience that doesn’t run off of that model?

Well, just ask Apple.

In May 19, of 2001, the first retail Apple store opened at Tysons Corner. There were no checkout lanes, nor were there shopping carts.

Instead, the store represented Steve Jobs and Ron Johnson’s vision for what retail should look like. And to this day, no other physical retailer has matched their success. According to Fortune:

The first key has been a store design aimed at improving and facilitating Discovery and Trial. All the products are set up for demonstration and use by shoppers. They can play with all the toys and discover what they want.

If you go to an Apple Store to buy a laptop, you won’t walk by rows and rows of boxed laptops that take up expensive retail real estate space. And you won’t put the box into your cart and bring it to the front of the store to checkout.

Instead, you’ll find a few laptops of each model out and running, all ready for you to take for a test drive. You’ll also find a passionate, store employee eager to help you discover the laptops features and to figure out which model might be best for you. They can also suggest or recommend accessories and features you might want, so you can get the instant gratification of getting a complete set-up all in one trip.

And if you find the laptop you want, the second key comes into play: reducing friction. That same employee can take your payment right there, and have the boxed model, along with any software and accessory purchases, brought directly to you.

Or, if you perhaps bought a heavier desktop model, Apple can arrange for delivery of your computer directly to your home. Not only do you not have to cart the computer around the store and to a checkout, you don’t even have to cart it out of the store and into your car.

A Simple Challenge!

Your challenge is to imagine what in store retail would look like if we concentrated more on increasing Discovery, Trial, and Instant Gratification, and decreasing friction, while deciding to ditch the previous century’s “best practices” of carts and checkout lines.

Some ideas from some of friends:

Dave Jenkins would want to see a hardware store with a workbench and a concierge that talks about my project with me, while a robot caddy brings tools/materials and we sort of do a ‘dry-run’ walk-thru of the project right there. Or for an electronics retailer, a cafe where he can poke/play/manhandle the demo equipment, then say ‘yes’ and walk out with the new stuff.

My brother Jeffrey thought about the grocery store. He wants to walk the aisles at the supermarket and point my phone at stuff I want and then head home to await delivery. While there are stations with participatory cooking demos (not just ordinary demonstrations but more like classes) and the ingredients all right there on hand. Like Blue Apron live and in person.

Jonathan Miller describes his ideal retail experience.

I walk into a store. It’s clean & bright.

My concierge shopping assistant greets me and I sit down for a cup of coffee.

He/she asks about my needs, what i’m after or what the event is i’m shopping for.

We set parameters and a budget and while she inputs the info into a Microsoft surface type interface which has AI that can accept my query and also recommend based on my previous purchases, i sip the organic coffee she ordered me.

We find a dozen matches, which i then can discard or save, eliminating and adding as we go.

Within 10 mins i have it down to 3 shortlisted items.

I select two, one a gift I came in for, another an impulse purchase for myself.

The concierge orders it, with gift wrapping and a card, while I order another coffee.

In return for my card, which she swipes, the concierge gives me a printed transaction reference and a pickup time, 7 minutes away.

I finish my coffee and walk to the exit, picking up my shopping as i exit.

Think I’m being far fetched? Check out B&H Photo in NYC. It’s not as slick as my imagines shopping space, but their automation rocks.

David Melamed imagines a different retail future:

I drive up to valet. Go into the store, all my usual items are automatically loaded into my car and paid for, I walk the aisle doing some browsing.. As I find things I like, a proximity sensor pushes a notice to my phone with expanded info on the product with reviews and Amazon’s price…if its cheaper elsewhere, I can one click order it…if not, I add it to my cart on my app and once I confirm I want it it gets loaded into my car… I walk to the store opening and my car fully loaded is waiting for me.

Linda Bustos points out:

“I think it would really depend on the context – both shopper and product. Millennial-oriented shopping I think this could pick up fast. Would be slower adoption or resistance among other demographic groups. We’ve seen this for years with online/mobile shopping and catalog. I’ll also throwback to your “buying modality” framework and suggest that removing the human interactive element will be more of a negative for certain folks. In my opinion, we’ll have a period of time, perhaps a decade, where this runs in tandem. Seamless digital for the digerati, and conventional retail for the rest.”

“In a recent trip I purchased items and they shipped them back to the room for me, other items they shipped to my house.”

Much of the technology has been evolving since Apple opened their first store nearly 15 years ago and a lot of the pieces are already in place in several retailers. What would retail look like to you if the shopping carts and baskets went away? How could retailers change the experience for you?

]]>http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/even-shopping-cart-isnt-sacred/feed/1shopping cartsInterior architecture photography by austin photographer david hillInterior architecture photography by austin photographer david hillcinemas-revenue-per-movie-screenapple store product discovery11 Social Media Tools & How to Use Them to Boost Conversionshttp://www.bryaneisenberg.com/11-social-media-tools-use-boost-conversions/
http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/11-social-media-tools-use-boost-conversions/#commentsMon, 04 Apr 2016 15:40:12 +0000http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/?p=2989Social Media has become a key component to the success of many businesses. Contextual Advertising, real-time word-of-mouth sharing and positive reviews help generate lots of traffic. If you can’t turn that traffic into sales or leads, then the traffic is wasted. Knowing how to collect and use the data generated can be difficult if you don’t have […]

]]>Social Media has become a key component to the success of many businesses. Contextual Advertising, real-time word-of-mouth sharing and positive reviews help generate lots of traffic. If you can’t turn that traffic into sales or leads, then the traffic is wasted. Knowing how to collect and use the data generated can be difficult if you don’t have the best tools. After all, you wouldn’t use a screwdriver to get a nail into a wall.

Here are a few favorites tools to help turn social media visitors into customers:

Raventools – Raventools is powerful because it makes it easy to track all your key social media campaign metrics. Without great metrics, you can’t know what is or is not working.

Conversion Tip: Success in social media comes from being able to react to the analytics in near real-time. Raventools’ Social Media Dashboards (plus other dashboards) make it easy for you to get campaign and profile data. Even right at your fingertips.

AddShoppers – A Social Sharing Platform which uses Reward sharing. It identifies Influencers and tracks social activity including, ROI. Their AddSocial solution includes:

Sharing Buttons – Sharing buttons used to drive more revenue and grab more leads. It also integrates Influencer marketing campaigns.

Trending Wall – Using a Pinterest-style layout, the Trending Wall highlights popular content. This helps to keep customers engaged on your site longer and increase order value.

Social Login – A great solution for filling out forms, even on mobile. This will improve data accuracy and enrich customer records with more data.

Purchase Sharing – Prompting your customers to talk about their purchase, when they are happy. This will increase your “word-of-mouth” traffic. About 30% of a sites sharing activity happens immediately after a sale.

Conversion Tip: Social Rewards, Referral Incentives and Targeted Ads help increase conversions. Imagine a customer NOT having to leave your site to look for coupons. They just have to share their purchase and receive a discount. Or, if they refer a friend, they can both receive discounts. Happy customers lead to higher sales, and that is the goal.

Builder – Increase engagement with entertaining and viral campaigns. Its as simple as creating a Facebook event and is functionable on mobile.

Amplifier – A Facebook Ads optimizer which creates different types of ads. It also assigns more budget to the ones that perform better.

Insights – Detects your impact using metrics of your pages, campaigns and tags. Get a better understanding of what works better and what impacts your customer and fan base.

Social CRM – Find out what your target needs and analyse their likes and preferences. Then you will be able to offer the best opportunities to increase sales.

Conversion Tip: The Fan Machine helps increase Social Conversion by collecting the right data. This helps you get to know your customers better and allows you to continue keeping them happy. We love the speed (you will too) at which these things are built. This is powerful for social media conversion optimization.

Ilos Videos – A screen recording platform that makes screencasting a breeze. From recording to uploading to conversion, Ilos can get it all done.

Record – Built for ease of use, the recorder will launch right from your browser or desktop app. The files are kept small, no matter the length of the video. This makes them able to be viewed anywhere and there is an undo feature so mistakes are not a problem.

Share – With integrated Cloud Storage, sharing becomes easy by grabbing the link. You can even manage who can access the video.

Store – Ilos offers unlimited Cloud Storage so you don’t have to fill up your computer. You will still have access whenever you need it. Playlists help make managing easy and you can even upload old videos.

Edit – As soon as you complete recording, the video gets uploaded to an edit page. Here you can re-record, trim unwanted parts and even add background music. You can also blur out private information that might be in the screening.

Conversion Tip: According to a study (published by Cisco in the Washington Post), in five years, 80% of the world’s Internet consumption will be through video. Being able to easily capture the right video and how and where to use it will make all the difference in the world. Having an agile tool to create videos will allow you to create lots of different videos and see which ones impact sales the fastest.

Ad Personalization – The process of creating different versions of an ad for different audiences. This helps boost response rates by 200%. You can test which commercials, spokespersons, products, features, etc. appeal to the most viewers.

Micro-Targeted Delivery – Reach the right viewers most cost-effectively. Micro-Targeting produces abundant data about audience micro-segments and delivery channels. This helps you make the best marketing decisions.

Campaign Automation – Makes the processes required to launch and run video advertising campaigns easier. You can deliver powerful, personalized video messages across all screens.

Relevant ads drive traffic and help boost conversions. Sightly makes sure you are providing relevant ads. Using their analyses and data collection, they localize and personalize your video ads. You can be sure you are hitting the customers you want.

What Would Seth Godin Do Plug-In – This WordPress Plug-in allows you to add a custom message to your post. This helps differentiate between first time visitors and repeat visitors. It will help you learn what message gets the first time visitor to convert. Oftentimes, it is different than what makes a repeat visitor become a customer and/or subscriber.

Conversion Tip: Test different offers, get a free White Paper, ask them to subscribe or share, try different messages for new and repeat visitors and see whether the message is in the header or footer of the post to see which is most effective.

PIPL’s FileApp – Upload a file with whatever pieces of information you have about your prospects or customers, and PIPL will complete your data inside the spreadsheet. If you have an email address, it will find a social media profile and vice versa including name, address, email, phone, etc.

Conversion Tip: The old direct marketing mantra of “the money is in the list” can now be updated with “the money is in the data from the list”. The more you know about your customers, where they are, where they interact, etc, the more you can appeal to their wants and needs.

Facebook – Among all the great new lead generation and other ad units that Facebook has been offering, the ability to use FB to test which headlines and images will be the most valuable in your social media campaigns will be powerful.

Conversion Tip: The way to do this is to set up two similar posts but slightly change the headline or change the image. Send each of the posts to separate audiences to see which has the best response. Then use the better ad to share in all your other organic and paid campaigns. Check out this great guide from Buffer on how to write better and test headlines on Social Media. You might also want to use a tool like Canva, Shutterstock Editor or Visme to create your graphics.

UserTesting.com – Providing a poor experience on a website or app can cost companies millions of dollars. By being able to see what customers do and how they interact on your site, you are better able to understand what might be causing them not to be able to complete the desired action, buying or registering. From simply choosing the wrong wording to using the wrong type of picture, potential customers might be missing the link they need, and you want them, to click.

Conversion Tip: Pick three previous campaigns you have run, and watch how actual people interact with your social media campaigns and through your website as they talk out loud about their experience. You will get plenty of ideas on what you can do to improve future campaigns.

Buffer – In Social Media, you need to be able to catch people in the moment, the right moment. With Buffer, you can stack, and schedule, your posts to whichever platform you choose. The posts can be the same for all platforms or customized as you wish. Buffer will also repeat posts at planned times.

Conversion Tip: Social Media is not just post once and forget it. If you have an effective campaign, don’t neglect to share it multiple occasions over multiple channels over time. Unless, of course, your campaign is time sensitive, like a Holiday Sale.

Buzzsumo – Helps create high converting content. You can search Buzzsumo to analyse the best performing content and influencers for any topic. You will learn what content is hot at the moment, but also what platforms to use and see where and how it is best shared and by whom.

Conversion Tip: Great social media campaigns don’t happen by accident, even if you have the right ingredients. if you can find the right influencers to share your content, it is like adding gasoline to the fire.

]]>http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/11-social-media-tools-use-boost-conversions/feed/2sold-street-arthttp://www.raventools.comhttp://www.addshoppers.com/http://www.thefanmachine.com/?lang=enhttps://www.ilosvideos.com/http://www.sightly.com/https://wordpress.org/plugins/what-would-seth-godin-do/https://pipl.com/fileapphttps://www.facebook.com/https://www.usertesting.com/https://buffer.com/http://buzzsumo.com/Omni-channel pricing with the connected customerhttp://www.bryaneisenberg.com/omni-channel-pricing-with-the-connected-customer/
http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/omni-channel-pricing-with-the-connected-customer/#commentsWed, 27 Jan 2016 16:55:56 +0000http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/?p=2982Sixteen painful minutes standing there while those behind us whispered obscenities under their breath. It wasn’t our fault. Standing on line waiting to complete a simple transaction should never be so painful. Let me tell you a story about how dynamic pricing issues and lack of cross-channel awareness created a negative message for a leading […]

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Sixteen painful minutes standing there while those behind us whispered obscenities under their breath. It wasn’t our fault. Standing on line waiting to complete a simple transaction should never be so painful.

Let me tell you a story about how dynamic pricing issues and lack of cross-channel awareness created a negative message for a leading retail brand.

My daughter was desperate, in the way only a fourteen year old can be, to purchase the Logo board game for her best friend’s birthday. She searched everywhere for it on her phone. She finally discovered that a major retailer nearby had it, and she could pick it up before she left on a trip.

We headed over to the store. We scanned the shelves but could not find it. We found a helpful associate. He found the last one. It was hiding behind other merchandise on the bottom shelf. My daughter thanked him with enthusiasm. More good news! The price on the shelf tag, was significantly lower than the price listed on the same retailer’s website.

We proceeded to the checkout counter. We were delighted that no one was in line ahead of us. The cashier scanned the item and the price shown was twice as high as the one listed on the website. We told the cashier that the price on the shelf was much lower. In fact, my daughter took a photo of the shelf tag and showed her. We showed her that the price on the website was also much lower than the price that was just scanned. She said, no problem…

Yet, problems there were. She signaled for the manager so she could adjust the price. The manager called over to someone in the department to check on the price on the shelf. As we waited, the line to checkout behind us was getting long and angry. It took sixteen minutes, but they finally adjusted the price to the one on the shelf tag and we completed our purchase.

There are customers who are price sensitive and those that are not. However, no one wants to feel ripped off. It is simple to check the price on Amazon and on the retailer’s website. The scanner at the checkout counter had the wrong price. The poor cashier didn’t have the authority, nor the know how to make the appropriate adjustment.

This retailer failed to create a seamless and pleasant customer experience. Instead, they reinforced my daughter’s feelings that it is so much easier to buy online.

These dynamic pricing issues can be resolved with the appropriate technology and processes. Just this past week IBM announced their dynamic pricing technology for retailers. Check out this demo below. What policies do you have in place to prevent this from happening in your stores?

Full disclosure: I recorded this demo at the IBM booth at NRF 2016 in NYC as part of the IBM Retail Futurist program.

]]>http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/omni-channel-pricing-with-the-connected-customer/feed/1hoodie-man-phone-1500×1000While I Have Been Gone…http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/looking-forward-to-2016/
http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/looking-forward-to-2016/#respondFri, 18 Dec 2015 14:37:28 +0000http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/?p=2971First, I would like to apologize for not blogging here and sharing with you. It isn’t because I have stopped writing or haven’t been busy with our new startup, speaking and clients but I have been writing elsewhere. A few of the things I have written lately include: Separate Pieces Lead to Poor Experiences – on […]

First, I would like to apologize for not blogging here and sharing with you. It isn’t because I have stopped writing or haven’t been busy with our new startup, speaking and clients but I have been writing elsewhere.

]]>http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/looking-forward-to-2016/feed/0While I Have Been Gone... by @TheGrokFirst, I would like to apologize for not blogging here and sharing with you. It isn't because I have stopped writing or haven't been busy with our new startup, speaking and clients but I have been writing elsewhere. A few of the things I have written lately include: Separate Pieces Lead to Poor Expebusy-train-stationDigital Marketers they think you suck!http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/digital-marketers-they-think-you-suck/
http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/digital-marketers-they-think-you-suck/#commentsTue, 17 Nov 2015 12:34:42 +0000http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/?p=2964In this presentation below, Professor Mark Ritson (@markritson) takes on our growing obsession with social media. He explores how social media data gets pumped up so it outshines traditional media returns. He examines the fallacy of the independent digital or social media campaign that operates outside a broader marketing effort, and finally looks ahead to a post-digital […]

]]>In this presentation below, Professor Mark Ritson (@markritson) takes on our growing obsession with social media. He explores how social media data gets pumped up so it outshines traditional media returns. He examines the fallacy of the independent digital or social media campaign that operates outside a broader marketing effort, and finally looks ahead to a post-digital world where 1980s-model marketing principles may very well prove to be the most forward-looking of all.

It’s excellent and he provides some damning evidence about Social Media. This is a much more important message for Digital Marketers to hear than Traditional Marketers.

Nevertheless, there are two factors that should not be ignored by Traditional Marketers. First social media has forced a revolution focused on the quality of the product/ service experience: “the brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what the customer says it is.”

Second, Social Media is not the entirety of digital media. I can show you thousands of companies with verified ROI on their digital media buys, especially search. I can also show you marketers who cannot justify their digital spend. The danger of his argument is that he made the correct case against Social Media Marketing and then applied it to the rest of digital media. That’s a flaw in logic. Anyone with a confirmation bias in favor of traditional media will simply agree and say “here’s the data” but they’d just be using the same logical falacy to support what they already believe. There is no question though that integration of all media is key and won’t happen until the proper value of each is seen.

]]>http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/digital-marketers-they-think-you-suck/feed/2Digital Marketers they think you suck! by @TheGrokIn this presentation below, Professor Mark Ritson (@markritson) takes on our growing obsession with social media. He explores how social media data gets pumped up so it outshines traditional media returns. He examines the fallacy of the independent digital or social media campaign that operates outsbrand,Social Mediatunnel-vision-1500×1000Are You Optimistic About SEO?http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/are-you-optimistic-about-seo/
http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/are-you-optimistic-about-seo/#commentsFri, 21 Aug 2015 11:47:15 +0000http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/?p=2955Since 2012, Searchmetrics has developed a report that looks at the ranking factors that Google uses which can help content marketers, webmasters, and SEO specialists to focus on those important criteria when developing content for websites, social media platforms, articles and blogs. I’ve been keeping a close eye on this space for nearly two decades […]

]]>Since 2012, Searchmetrics has developed a report that looks at the ranking factors that Google uses which can help content marketers, webmasters, and SEO specialists to focus on those important criteria when developing content for websites, social media platforms, articles and blogs.

I’ve been keeping a close eye on this space for nearly two decades and in 2011, I summarized all of SEO into the 5 R’s of search marketing that were evergreen and constant. Focus on how content on your site must be (1) Relevant and build your (2) Reputation. It must also be (3) Remarkable, (4) Readable, and of sufficient (5) Reach.

As you go through the ranking factors, see how neatly they all fit within the 5 R’s. The report focuses on user experience, content, social signals, backlinks and technical aspects. It includes information on which ranking factors are important this year, how these have changed and developed from previous years, and the benchmarks for the top 10 search results.

Technical

In terms of the on-page factors not directly linked with a page’s content:

These factors are the factors that contribute to the search engine crawlers “reading your website.”

The factor “keyword” is diminishing in importance. Google, like people, understands semantics, and they want you to develop content that is interesting to read, not stuffed with repetitive keywords.

Pages continue to be highly optimized and have a meta description and H-tags. These are some of the fundamentals to basic SEO. This is where you want to pay attention to the factors that will make your skimmable and scannable.

While page documents are increasing, loading time is decreasing.

Domains with a high SEO visibility have higher rankings with their URLs. They have built up a reputation in the search engine.

Good URLs have the equivalent worth to thousands of keywords.

User Experience

This is a new section this year, reflecting the emphasis on the user experience as it relates to design and usability as well as on-page optimization. The findings are:

More images are being used on websites, but there are fewer videos, relating to Google’s decision to only play video thumbnails in the SERPs.

There are fewer websites in the top 30 rankings that include Google AdSense advertisements. Don’t distract your users with ads that don’t improve their experience.

Higher ranking pages have better formatted pages with more interactive elements that are easy for both the user and bot to understand. They’re also more effortless for reading, which shows the value of creating text that is skimmable and scannable and chunked for comprehension.

The top ranking sites were responsive sites that did not use Flash.

User signals are playing a bigger role in relation to content and rankings. This is the most critical signal for relevance that Google has. These signals could include your users’ click-through behavior on SERPs, data collected from users through a browser like Chrome, data collected in aggregate through Google Analytics, aggregated Gmail history, and all the personalized search history they have on that individual visitor, among others.

User Signals

User signals – CTR, time on site, bounce rate – are becoming increasingly important for search engines because these are a way to find out if the user was satisfied with their search experience. The availability of big data is assisting search engines in enhancing the experience provided.

Content

Relevant content is king and has usurped keywords as the most vital factor for rankings. Here’s what the findings say:

Social Signals

The correlation between more social signals and higher ranking URLs continues to be of great importance and shows the importance of reach. Other findings include:

There is a significant increase in the average number of social signals per URL and in corresponding ranking.

Social signals are involved in brand awareness, domain performance, and direct traffic.

Further research is still needed in this area to better understand the value of social signals on rankings. It is still believed that there are still other signals that are imperative to showing search engines where there is relevant content.

Backlinks

The overall belief is that backlinks are losing their power to influence the rankings because other factors will play a greater role in the future. Here are the other conclusions:

The domain name is more often found in the backlink’s anchor text than a keyword.

More backlinks refer to deep-link URLs, rather than the home page.

Thematically-related domains are now more often mentioning a domain or brand without having them linked.

There are more no-follow backlinks than the previous year.

Many of the changes related to backlinks might be tied to Google’s attempts to stop “unnatural” link formation.

Final Thoughts

With these findings, Searchmetrics has recommended focusing on creating relevant content that reflects people’s needs, search focus and devices used; moving beyond keywords because search intentions are often much more complex and diversified; leveraging mind maps and topic clouds, rather than using lists of keywords and subjects; and creating readable content that’s structured in an attractive, digestible way.

I am hoping this will get people seeing that success in SEO is a long-term investment, not some short-term project or gimmick. The process of planning and developing with search in mind is a dynamic process that requires regular review and adjustment to ensure that strategies and tactics still reflect the needs, wants, and behaviors of the target audience.

In the next year or two, as the growth in mobile usage continues to rise at a meteoric pace, I highly suggest you invest the resources into improving how users are finding and interacting with your content through mobile devices. Even though conversion rates are lower on mobile devices, a lot of the research in search begins there. Those who understand this mobile-only design philosophy will have opportunities to see significant gains on all sides of their digital presence. Keep in mind that if you delight your visitors while they are researching on mobile, it will be much easier to have them come back to convert on a desktop or an in-store experience.

]]>http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/are-you-optimistic-about-seo/feed/2Are You Optimistic About SEO? by @TheGrokSince 2012, Searchmetrics has developed a report that looks at the ranking factors that Google uses which can help content marketers, webmasters, and SEO specialists to focus on those important criteria when developing content for websites, social media platforms, articles and blogs. I've been keepimobile phone